B’nai B’rith held a panel discussion on “Middle East Security and the Changing Trans-Atlantic Partnership” on June 28, 2012, at the National Press Club in Washington, DC. The event was co-sponsored by the Potomac Institute for Policy Studies' International Center for Terrorism Studies, the Inter-University Center for Terrorism Studies, and the International Law Institute’s Inter-University Center for Legal Studies.

Panelists included Professor Ruth Wedgewood, director of the international law and organizations programs at Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies; Michael Eisenstadt, director of the military and security studies program at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy; Derrick Busse, CDR USN (Ret.), research fellow at the Potomac Institute for Policy Studies; Miles Pomper, senior research associate at the Monterey Institute of International Studies’ James Martin Center for Nonproliferation Studies; Bruce Weinrod, senior fellow at the Potomac Foundation and former deputy assistant secretary of defense for European and NATO policy; Jeremy Sharp, specialist in Middle Eastern Affairs at the Library of Congress’ Congressional Research Service; and Richard Weitz, Ph.D., senior fellow and director of the Hudson Institute’s Center for Political-Military Analysis.

B'nai B'rith International Executive Vice President Daniel S. Mariaschin, gave opening remarks. Professor Yonah Alexander, director of the Potomac Institute’s International Center for Terrorism Studies, moderated the discussion and colleague Brigadier General David G. Reist, USMC (Ret.), Vice President in the Potomac Institute for Policy Studies' Strategy and Planning Division, gave closing remarks.

The experts examined the unfolding security challenges in the Middle East, including uncertainties in the aftermath of the Arab Spring, the recent elections in Egypt, the civil war in Syria, Iran's nuclear ambitions, and NATO’s role in Middle Eastern affairs.